


unearthed

by assassinactual



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 15:20:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2472980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assassinactual/pseuds/assassinactual
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"For decades I rotted under the earth. And then the war came."</p>
            </blockquote>





	unearthed

_Boom._

She felt it more than heard it.

_Boom._

It had been decades since she'd really heard anything other than the roar in her ears.

_Boom._

Even a dormant vampire has a pulse. After years - or decades, or centuries, maybe - locked in suffocating darkness under the earth, the faint sound became a steady droning roar, like waves crashing on a shore over and over and over.

_Boom._

Year after year, it wore her down, until she couldn't even remember her name. All there was was the darkness and the sound, and the earth slowly crushing her.

_Boom._

_Cannon,_ she thought. _Explosive shells._ Then she realized she _could_ think.

_Boom._

It had happened before. A battle above rousing her into near wakefulness with explosions and rhythmically marching soldiers. Why did this time feel different?

_Boom._

That one pounded on her chest, shook the earth and her with it.

Then her world exploded. She heard the explosion this time, before her ears started ringing. The crushing pressure from above became unbearable. Then a crack, and another explosion nearby, this one strangely muffled, and debris raining down on her face.

Time seemed to pause while she processed this.

She tried for a breath, and choked. The crushing weight was back. She was being buried once more. Desperately, she clawed her way out of her prison while coughing up blood and dirt and trying to force air into her lungs.

Finally, she wriggled her legs out and pulled herself up out of the earth. Unable to see or even feel where she was, she slipped, then fell, then rolled down into the crater formed by the explosion.

The air was thick with dust and smelled of sulfur and smoke and death, but she was free. She was free and she could breathe again. But the air around her was still heavy and murky, choking her with dust. It was closing around her, pressing her down into the pit, trapping her there, crushing - _No._

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then another. She forced herself to reach up, claw at the loose dirt, _pull._  First left, then right, dragging herself up out the crater inch by inch, until she grabbed at empty air and collapsed over the rim of the crater.

It was quiet.

The thundering of the artillery was fading away. There were cracks of rifle fire in the distance, and an odd rapid chattering sound. But under it all, just the faint sound of the wind rusting the grass. She could feel that wind on her face, too.

She allowed herself to open her eyes. So unused to seeing, it took them time to adjust. Slowly, one at a time a few faint pinpricks of light began to show against the inky black sky. Soon, she could pick out the shapes of a few constellations, even though her mind couldn't recall their names. Hundreds of stars, then thousands and thousands, filling the entire open night sky from horizon to horizon


End file.
